This article is a small contribution to the burgeoning literature on the
dispersal of the French Huguenots into diaspora following the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes. It is also a study of gender in matters pertaining to
health, climate, and resettlement at the Cape of Good Hope and in
Charles Town, South Carolina in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. No previous study has centered primarily on the Huguenot
women (and to a lesser extent their children). This is because of the
limited amount of primary sources available in both areas. Still, an
attempt has been made to recreate their world during this period, with the
conclusion that the climatic conditions in Carolina were harsher, thus the
death-rates were higher than at the Cape. Both groups suffered from
some maladies that were common at the time, which made comparisons
possible, while - again mostly due to climatic factors - contrasts are to be
found as well.